That cat got on my last nerve this week!  I’ve been trying to meet him halfway – more play time, more treats, more focused attention – and yesterday he was a Hoover in a fur jacket, sucking up all my attention and then some.

I broke out the “cat dancer” and ran him around the house.  I encouraged him to jump and catch and let him carry it off to his lair.  I tried to pet him, but he didn’t want pets.  He purred loudly and with excitement when I roughly massaged his sides and tweaked his tail.  He leaped over the dog multiple times, just because he could.

He…jumped onto the kitchen counter and took a bite out of a rattan mat

…found a crinkly piece of plastic and tried to eat it

…ignored the “authorized” piece of plastic, found a small plastic bag with a button in it, and batted it around the house

…zoomed around the dog, raced through the dining room and flipped a rug

…lay down on the anti slip rug mat and nonchalantly cleaned himself

…jumped on the kitchen table and knocked newspapers off

..stuck a curious paw into my water glass

…jumped on the coffee table and pawed at my husband’s laptop then grabbed the cord to the backup device and tried to carry it off

..aggressively tried to steal hard boiled egg from my hand when I was trying to eat

…unsucessfuly attempted to scale the top of our new bedroom dressers from the floor and fell with a thud

I gave myself a time out.  

It was an exhausting day.  He plumb wore me out.

I made further unsuccessful attempts to redirect this wild adolescent energy and there was another time out.

Finally, when the evening wound down, I gave him a nice dish of moist food and tried to get him to retire for the night.  I had to enlist help and we tried bribery, force, and finally brought out the squirt guns to wrangle him to bed.

My last nerve.

This morning I fixed a bowl of kibble and added bonito flakes.  I kept doors closed so he wouldn’t race out of his room to continue his reign of terror.  I opened his bedroom door and was greeted with a curious face and a cat eager to check out breakfast.  I sat with him while he cherry picked the good stuff out of the bowl and let him investigate the hall and closed door that kept him confined. 

Finally I got on his bed and he joined me.  He was happy and purry and welcomed my touch.  He flopped onto my hand and nuzzled my thigh.  I gave him love and pats and soft words while he absorbed it all as if it were his due.  We left on a loving note.  Thank goodness!

It struck me that too often this is my behavior with God.  I get busy.  I get overstimulated.  I double down on the things that are disturbing my peace.  I do whatever I want, when I want it.  And then I go to church once a week and praise and worship surround me, I am overwhelmed with gratitude and love and I vow to do better once I walk out that door. 

I am so grateful for His everlasting forgiveness and patience.

But if I want to mature and step fully into my Christianity, I need to do better.  I can’t act out all week and expect others to forgive my bad behavior.  It’s not all about me and the world doesn’t have the capacity for forgiveness and redemption that God does.

  
He sees me.  He knows me.  He loves me.  I don’t need to act out in the world to get his attention.  His is a deep well of love, forgiveness and challenge.  Every moment is a choice to obey or not.  I hope I’m beyond testing his love for me.  My faith is stronger than that.